What is in A19 the best melee?

[Kerotos]

Im kinda new to 7 Days to die and i want to start with a melee build.

[FancyLad]

Clubs or Fists are great. At higher perks you'll be taking heads off very often and be getting back tons of stam. Clubs have a little better range than fists but fists negate infection from zombie bites.
Knives are pretty good early game but the bleed effect barely hurts end game mobs.
Sledgehammer is a stam hog and can leave you vulnerable if you miss or are fighting multiple mobs.
Spear has low normal attack so it's not great as a main but it can be handy to have for throwing, especially if you hate the primitive bow.
I hate stun baton. In all fairness I haven't used it much but it seems too gimicky and not useful.

[blazha]

Whatever melee you chose you will need to take Sexual T-Rex perk. When you max that out Sledgehammer is pretty much best AOE weapon in the game. It has range, huge damage and you knock down every nearby enemy with power attack so even if you miss the head they will all drop down so you can pick them 1 by 1. With T-Rex skill maxed every kill gives you 30 stamina and power attack uses between 30 and 40 so you pretty much need to miss 5 or 6 times in a row dry your stamina pool.

I'm ignoring all fist weapons since they came in A18 because it doesn't make any sense to fight zombies up close with your fists. They are the most OP weapon in the game and you become invulnerable when you max them out. Plus there is a book series now that makes you even more invulnerable with healing, stamina regen and speed buffs. I never used them and I never will. That is my opinion, feel free to try them out.

[Niuq]

Alpha 19

Sledge is still the king, requires investment to make the high stamina costs not feel stupidly punishing.
The one hit kill , Area knockdowns, and leaving your pick and axe at home.(when not mining / harvesting)

The harder the difficulty the less fun the other melee weapons are for me.

Any melee build will want to max Sex Trex to help with stamina costs.
Ergonomic grip on melee weapon of choice.
Customized fittings for armor
1 or more ranks in cardio
Pain tolerance to counter stuns
Healing factor ( bugged currently and draining food each time it heals you)
A firearm to swap to during low stamina


High tech options are water purifier in helm and stack of murky water spam drink to stack the 15% stamina regen buff. Beer again for the stamina regen.
Ranks in machine gunner to regen stamina

In my opinion anything besides the sledge requires too many hits higher chances to trigger rage mode , in melee longer so more chances to make mistakes and get hit in return.

Baseball bats ( clubs with longer range) are what i would recommend if you cant stand the slow speed of the sledge.

Iron sledge is when you should decide if you like the sledge or not.
Levels + max stamina food help a lot the more stamina you have the more you regenerate per tick.

[Niuq]

Sledge also helps counter the changes to stun locking

Enemy Pain Stun Lock

AI Pain resistance has been improved. It still builds up over time, but has been adjusted to be harder to stun lock enemies. We fixed pain reactions not always triggering. Pain now uses a new hit blending system, so different strengths and durations of pain are shown and can happen while AI is attacking.

[Xtinction]

i personally love the sledge it seems to be better targeting then i was in a18

[oohbetty]

i was heavily invested in clubs when the trader offered me a green steel axe, easily beat my blue baseball bat for melee damage and saved a slot to boot :D

its a 1 shot killing machine and its ok on wood too ;)

[Kerotos]

I will try the Slege ty for all the answers

[whats82]

The higher level sledge uses significantly more stamina per swing as well. When I initially found iron sledge I switched right away, and then got into a few sticky situations because the stamina drain was significant. Had to go back to stone sledge for a bit until I up'd SexT a bit more.

[JimmyIowa]

First, take it with a grain of salt if someone says their favorite weapon is "king". Clubs still have vastly higher damage output than sledge. Sledge is safer defensively. It's 50/50. "King" is very subjective in this case I guess.

Aside from having lower dps, steel sledge power attack uses a huge amount of stamina (81). Yes, it is highly effective IF you are a good aim and connect with enemy heads consistently. Because the 30 stamina boost from trex on a kill makes up for some of it. However, missing just a single time means you are out 81 stamina, which may mean you can't swing again...or run either. Which is is a very bad combo.

Fair warning: Early on the sledge feels like a god weapon to new people. And that can be a trap for people who aren't prepared for later.

The sledge defensive knockdown can pay off with good aim. But if you tend to be a left mouse button spammer in most games then sledge is going to get you killed, and probably quite frustrated at later stages of the game against multiple running enemies.

Another problem with sledge in A19. I can tell you since I fight the blood moon horde toe-to-toe with no easy settings like walking zeds : when you take an arm injury (new in A19), your attacks slow down by some percent. Well, with a sledge that means you are now attacking in slow motion. And taking literally 5 hits in between underwater-motion swings. Again, be prepared for what you are getting into.

[blazha]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

First, take it with a grain of salt if someone says their favorite weapon is "king". Clubs still have vastly higher damage output than sledge. Sledge is safer defensively. It's 50/50. "King" is very subjective in this case I guess.

Aside from having lower dps, steel sledge power attack uses a huge amount of stamina (81). Yes, it is highly effective IF you are a good aim and connect with enemy heads consistently. Because the 30 stamina boost from trex on a kill makes up for some of it. However, missing just a single time means you are out 81 stamina, which may mean you can't swing again...or run either. Which is is a very bad combo.

Fair warning: Early on the sledge feels like a god weapon to new people. And that can be a trap for people who aren't prepared for later.

The sledge defensive knockdown can pay off with good aim. But if you tend to be a left mouse button spammer in most games then sledge is going to get you killed, and probably quite frustrated at later stages of the game against multiple running enemies.

Another problem with sledge in A19. I can tell you since I fight the blood moon horde toe-to-toe with no easy settings like walking zeds : when you take an arm injury (new in A19), your attacks slow down by some percent. Well, with a sledge that means you are now attacking in slow motion. And taking literally 5 hits in between underwater-motion swings. Again, be prepared for what you are getting into.

T-Rex skill reduces power attach stamina consumption by 50% so you dont't use 81 but 40 stamina. If you have ergonomic grip it would be 32 stamina per power attack. Because of slow swing speed you will regenerate that 2 stamina difference meanwhile and if you get kill with every power attack your stamina will stand still (great for melee horde base). You will of course miss or not kill enemies with one swing, but that still leaves you with enough stamina for another attack. Iron and Steel Sledge are not weapons to begin with for sure, but later on when you get the T-Rex skill stamina is no longer an issue.
Edit: Yeah, new arm injury can mess you up, not just because of slowing your attack speed but you can break arm if you use power attack too. I didn't have broken arm yet but I guess you can't use melee at all untill you treat the wound?

[Triggerhappy]

Clubs have high damage, lower stam, less penalty for a miss. The kicker is the bonus damage to zeds that are knocked down. If the first power attack to the face doesn't kill them, the next one while they're laying motionless on the ground will. SexRex is the only stamina skill you need to worry about, and if you have the melee books read up, you actually don't even need that any more once you get motor tools. Endgame is mostly using ranged weapons so melee becomes kinda moot after a while anyways, especially since most of them are just running at you and slowly swinging at things tends to put you into more trouble than its worth. If you're using a melee weapon trying to clear through a tierV poi, then you're being pretty inefficient with your time (which itself really only matters depending on your horde night and difficulty settings).

[Kuromiya]

Sledge is OK and all, but what's the point in using up an inventory slot on a weapon that can't harvest? You're better off using that slot for another stack of ammo.

Axe and machete make fine melee weapons and don't waste any slots. Fists is the most fun, especially with the new perk books.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by blazha:

but later on when you get the T-Rex skill stamina is no longer an issue.

Fighting the horde it is. Or just multiple rads in the daytime when looting. This is coming from an experienced sledge user who could clear an insane/insane (second insane is enemy running speed) horde night in A18 toe-to-toe with sledge while watching seinfeld reruns on my other monitor.

Multiple rads, or horde night, in A19 is a whole different story. Because unless you decap (one hit kill), you take multiple swings to kill one rad. That simply a fact. This means not getting the 30 stam boost back. This means running out of stamina with 6 radcops in your face. I promise you it factually does.

EDIT: for clarification. I have fought horde night with steel sledge, with max trex, ergonomic grip, and coffee and red tea (for a total of +35% stam regen) You can still run out of stamina if you fail to decap or kill on every single swing. Try it.

[Khissi]

If you do choose to go all out and go sledge, do yourself a favor and stick with the stone sledgehammer until you've perked up enough points in SexRex and the hammer, itself. The Iron hammer is great, but the stamina drain is significant, especially if you're trudging about in lower level heavy armor without the mods to help with movement penalties and no points in Heavy Armor perk. The stone hammer doesn't hit as hard, but takes far less stamina and is just as deadly against normal zombies. Head popping is fun! and it does happen often. Big Momma, on the other hand... well, expect to have to hit her several times.

The sledgehammer will really come into its own once you've invested enough perk points and you pick up a good steel weapon. It will be a major change to go from the stone to steel and will take learning how to use it, but, be patient until then, watch how the zombies move and learn how to keep out of their reach. And, never, ever go without a back up weapon. Stuff happens, and it happens fast and nasty. A couple of loaded blunderbuss or even a toilet pistol will help until you get something better.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by Triggerhappy:

Clubs have high damage, lower stam, less penalty for a miss.

All that. Plus more. Clubs are not just much more damage per minute, but also significantly more dmg per point of stamina spent than sledge. (Yes I have calculated the stamina to dmg conversion efficiency for all melee weapons, thanks.)

The sledge is....okay. And probably didn't need to be nerfed quite as heavily as it was.

EDIT: for clarification, the above comparisons are for steel club to steel sledge. I didn't do the numbers for stone sledge and wood club since I don't use them 90% of the game. But early on stone sledge might actually be king.